Oakland/Alameda Estuary set for $1.3 million cleanup

This abandoned tug is one of several items to be pulled from the water during an upcoming Estuary cleanup. Photo courtesy of CalRecycle.

Brock de Lappe points to a distant corner of the Oakland/Alameda Estuary, on the edge of one’s line of vision from his perch at the Alameda Marina. It’s a spot he said is covered with trash and littered with sunken boats.

But a state agency is finalizing a $1.3 million grant that could help clear the Estuary of some of those abandoned hazards.

An effort spearheaded by de Lappe, Alameda Marina’s harbormaster, to address a related issue – people living in unregistered boats on the Estuary – caught the attention of CalRecycle, and the state agency decided to put $650,000 toward an Estuary cleanup. The department’s spokesman said it is finalizing a deal to collect another $650,000 in matching funds from the Cosco Busan oil spill settlement, which is being administered by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.

Details of the cleanup effort, including a start date, are still being finalized, though CalRecycle spokesman Mark Oldfield said a sunken barge and tugboat near San Leandro Bay are among the navigational and environmental hazards they hope to pull out of the Estuary.